Month: November 2018

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Giving Tuesday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day at our house in Tulsa this past week. I hope you all did, too! We had 13 for dinner here at our house. Thanksgiving worship was Wednesday evening at our church.

A halt in emails was called among the LWML Executive Committee from Wednesday noon to Monday morning. What a relief! I could walk by my office room without feeling guilty about not checking email. In fact, that was one of the things I was really thankful for! Email is wonderful in that it speeds up communication and cuts costs of postage. However, as it speeds up communication it also speeds up the expectation of response time, making it necessary to check all during the day! Hence the guilty feeling as you slink by the office door like someone is watching you!

Tuesday is Giving Tuesday. LWML is participating. This is our fourth year to participate. I know that LWML women are invested year round in giving for mission grants and operating costs of LWML. Mite Boxes are filled faithfully by men, women, and children in homes, offices, and churches. It is a privilege to pass along the blessings God has showered down on us with others in physical need or spiritual need. Two women have stepped up and offered to match funds from Giving Tuesday up to $20,000. This will help immensely as we near the end of our biennium March 31, 2019 and provide the mission funding that delegates promised at the Albuquerque convention.

I’ll be checking my email, happily this time, and our LWML Facebook page for updates! I hope you will read about the wonderful mission work being done by our grant recipients on our website or on our Facebook page this week as we participate in a national Giving Tuesday. Please pray for them as you read!

Thank you for all that you do!

Patti

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1Corinthians 15: 57-58).

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Long Thanksgiving Prayers

Give Thanks

I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. My son, David, wife Sarah, Jackson, Adelaide, and Charlotte will walk over to our house for dinner. My brother, Robert, wife, Marcia, from Springfield, Missouri, our niece, Heidi from Oklahoma City and nephew Kurt, from Chicago, will also be there.  My son, John, who many of you met in Albuquerque, will fly in from LA with his girlfriend, Rita. And my husband, Bill, will tell the same jokes and make the same remarks he always does at a big family gathering! What fun! We may actually get everyone together for a family Christmas photo! My Thanksgiving prayer is pretty long!

I’m also thankful for the opportunity to visit and hear from our mission grant recipients—current and past—who express their thankfulness to me for the support the LWML has given them in their mission outreach ministries. I wish you could hear each one. We have a page in the Mission section of our website called “Your Mite Offerings Have Made a Difference” where we carry updates, thank you letters, and photos from grants current and past. These recipients have long Thanksgiving prayers for you all who faithfully fill your Mite Boxes in order to help them spread the Word of God around the world.

I know you all have much to be thankful for. As we attend church this Thanksgiving we will thank God for all the material things we have been blessed with as well as the most wonderful thing of all, faith in Jesus Christ and the gift of everlasting life. We thank God for loving us and sending His only son to die on the cross in payment for our sins. We thank God for making us heirs of His heavenly home. It’s almost too much to include in a single prayer of thanksgiving. Just so much! Amazing love, amazing Grace, amazing God!

I’m wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and very long Thanksgiving prayers!

Patti

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 118:1)

Lutheran Women in Mission, Missions for God

Follow the Leader

This past week LWML held a leadership event in St. Louis. This event was titled, “Follow the Leader”, and included 180 LWML women and junior pastoral counselors from the forty districts. LWML committee members conducted sessions covering various aspects of LWML. Guest speakers contributed, as well. I was very encouraged by the interest shown by the attendees and by the dedication of so many to serving the Lord and working in LWML.

Preparations for the event started over a year ago and subjects were chosen after a survey was conducted with district presidents asking what they wanted to learn and hear about. In response, the planning committee under the direction of VP of Organizational Resources, Debbie Larson, chose carefully the content of the sessions and the speakers.

It was a fun and informative few days spent together. Now the attendees will bring the knowledge acquired back to their districts. If you weren’t in St. Louis you will get the opportunity to learn and experience the material presented closer to home in your district and zone.

It’s a great time to be serving in LWML! It’s a great time to follow our leader, Jesus Christ!

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:9).

Patti

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This week in LWML!

Assembly of Leaders logo

This is a big week for LWML! We are having our Assembly of Leaders (AOL), this year, titled “Follow the Leader”. As always, we will begin with Bible study centered around the Scripture verse, What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me — practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:9). Bible studies will be led by our counselors, Rev. Robert Mundahl and Rev. Mitchel Schuessler.

Thirty-nine of our forty district presidents will be attending. New, this year, will be the newly elected junior counselors from the districts attending with their districts. Each district was encouraged to invite two other women to attend. Following the 3-day event, they will return to their districts and hold district and zone events to share information and ideas that they shared here in St. Louis.

Speakers, interest sessions, convention information, communication ideas, and other things used to strengthen their districts will be presented. I hope all of you will be able to attend a presentation they will do in your district.

Please remember them in your prayers this week for safe travel, good health, and a valuable learning time with everyone at this event.

In LWML, we serve the Lord, our Leader, with Gladness!

God’s peace be with you all!

Patti

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